Allergies are the result of the immune system reacting very strongly to otherwise harmless substances. Many allergies are triggered by chemicals found in certain foods. It can be difficult to determine what foods are triggering the allergies, but this is a critical step in managing food allergies. People with food allergies are often put on a special diet, known as the allergy detection diet, to identify dietary triggers.
Allergy Detection Diet
The first step in the allergy detection diet is to eliminate the most commonly allergenic foods from the patient's diet.The idea is that if certain foods are eliminated from the diet and the symptoms of the allergy go away, the eliminated foods are most likely the allergen, the Mayo Clinic explains. This portion of the diet is continued for between one to four weeks, EveryDiet.org notes.
Food Reintroduction
Once the patient has been on a diet which produces no allergies, different foods can be reintroduced. If a food is reintroduced and the allergy symptoms return, then it is likely that the newly added food is responsible for the allergies. Patients should only add one food group at a time and should wait at least five days before adding a new food group in order to give the immune system time to generate an allergic reaction.
Types
Food allergies come in two different types, which can help narrow down which food is causing the allergy. Foods that cause an immediate allergic response include walnuts, soy, strawberries, shellfish, wheat, dairy and peanuts, WHFoods.com states. Immediate food allergies are easier to diagnose because of the short period of time between the consumption of the food and the allergic response. Many of these same foods, including soy, peanuts, shellfish, eggs and wheat can cause delayed allergies, which can be trickier to diagnose as the symptoms may not appear for several days.
Limitations
An allergy detection diet may need to be modified for people who have particularly severe food allergies. The definitive step for diagnosing a food allergy using the allergy detection diet is the reappearance of the allergy when the offending food is reintroduced into the diet. Severe food allergies, however, can be very dangerous, so patients may need to undergo other forms of allergy testing, such as a scratch test performed under the care of a doctor, to identify the cause of severe food allergies.
Benefits
The main benefit of an allergy detection diet is that it allows the patient to identify exactly what foods cause the allergy. By avoiding these foods, the allergy symptoms will go away with no additional treatment.
